Second Sunday of Easter (Year A, RCL)

For some reason, I couldn’t find the holy in the holy rocks everyone else was venerating.

Children are good at asking questions that build relationship.

Some people say they don’t identify as Christian because of what they see, or don’t see, in the church.

When Jesus walks into the locked room, the first thing he offers is peace.

John 20:19–23

The disciples don't believe Mary—or do they?

1 Peter 1:3–9, John 20:19–31

There is a richness and depth to this week's text from John's Gospel, fertile ground for reflection. Below are some assorted thoughts the story of Thomas inspires in me.

Why is the Jesus on that crucifix so small?

The cross overshadows him, dwarfs him. This is what I think about in my Aquinas class.

To ask a question is to risk an answer. Sometimes we don’t like the answer we receive. In Thomas’s case, though, the real risk is in success.

Every time I read Psalm 16, I think about how an individual's life is in large measure the sum total of the influence of others.

Last year I took a class to determine my Enneagram number. I’m an old hand at Myers-Briggs, with its 16 types, but this nine-number circle with all sorts of arrows going back and forth was a new system for me. Thankfully the teacher, Suzanne Stabile, had a teaching style I understood well. It turns out we are the same type.

Some of us reside in the heart (or feeling) triad, as Suzanne and I do, and some in the head (or thinking) triad. My guess is Thomas would belong in the third triad.

Thomas knows Jesus as incarnate. He cannot easily make the leap to Jesus’ new condition. It’s easier for us, because we consider the story in a different order.